Miscellaneous accommodation costs
4.—(1) Where an award of income support includes an amount under Schedule 4 (persons in residential care and nursing homes) or Schedule 5 (persons in board and lodging accommodation or hostels) or paragraph 13 (residential accommodation) or 14 (Polish resettlement) or 15 (resettlement units) of Schedule 7 to the Income Support Regulations “miscellaneous accommodation costs” the adjudicating authority may determine that an amount of the specified benefit shall be paid direct to the person or body to whom the charges in respect of that accommodation are payable, but, except in a case to which paragraph 14 or 15 of Schedule 7 to the Income Support Regulations apply or where the accommodation is a hostel run by a voluntary organisation and which is akin to a resettlement unit or which provides facilities for alcoholics or drug addicts, only if the adjudicating authority is satisfied that the beneficiary has failed to budget for the charges and that it is in the interests of the family.
(2) In relation to miscellaneous accommodation costs the amount of any payment of income support to a third party determined under the above paragraphs shall be–
(a)the amount of the award under paragraph 1(1)(a) of Schedule 4 to the Income Support Regulations excluding any increase under paragraph 2(2) of that Schedule; or
(b)the amount of the award under paragraph 1(1)(a) of Schedule 5 to those Regulations excluding any increase under paragraph 2 of that Schedule; or
(c)the amount of the award under paragraph 13(a), 14 or, as the case may be, 15 of Schedule 7 to those Regulations excluding the amount allowed by those paragraphs in respect of personal expenses,
as the case may be.